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I remember well my response when a few years ago the author of Rensal gave me his work to read. I found it charming, engaging and delightful in its poetic prose and its suggestive professional allusions. In re-reading it, my response has not changed. I felt transposed again into an imaginary world where I listened in on a dialogue between a child and therapist, told in a story which takes place in an animal world of redbits who behave and talk like humans. Redbits are a special breed of animal, 'not unlike our rabbits'—perhaps something like being Irish?
Rensal the Redbit is a short book of 61 pages containing the description of 16 meetings between the two main characters, Rensal, 'the small one' who is a very curious redbit full of questions, and an adult redbit referred to as 'the tall one'. In their first meeting the tall one listens attentively to Rensal's question which arose after he first saw the tall one's shadow: 'Why am I scared of everything bigger than I?' The tall one 'scratched his chin, waiting for a wise expression to appear'. Then he began to talk gingerly about envy, anger and the projection of it, to which Rensal listens with wonderment.
On days to follow, Rensal eagerly brings his secrets, dreams, questions and confusing observations into the sessions. The tall one, who with spontaneity and ease is astutely attuned to both the inner and outer world of the child, engages Rensal and lets himself be engaged by him into making sense or gaining insight into the workings of the disquieting intrusions disturbing Rensal's mind. The mutual engagement in this process evolves in the shortest of time, with the young one and the tall one becoming active participants in a dialogue which demonstrates how a therapeutic alliance in child therapy comes about.
As an example, Rensal, after having a bad dream, runs to the tall one saying, 'your words only helped for a short while. When I fell asleep I was afraid all over again' to which the tall one replies,